The present invention relates to optical microscopes. More specifically, the invention relates to confocal scanning optical microscopes.
Confocal scanning optical microscopes are known in the art and offer a number of advantages over traditional optical microscopes. One main advantage of a confocal scanning microscope is that it provides optical sectioning of a sample because it attenuates light which is not in focus. Thus, only light which is in focus contributes to the final image.
In a scanning confocal microscope, a beam is swept across a surface of a sample. The light which emanates from the sample (e.g., reflected from, emitted from or transmitted through) is directed towards a pinhole. Light that is in focus passes through the pinhole and onto an optical detector. As the beam is scanned across the surface of the sample, the output from the optical detector can be accumulated and formed into an image of the scanned surface.